Ray Myers Hubli, Then and Now Thank you for this opportunity to tell ...

enhance our understanding of technological developments there.Although I was now returning as representative of a federal domesticagency, I was also very interested in what might remain from my earlierassociations via the Peace Corps. Surely someone would remember thePeace Corps, or at least one or more of the young Americans who livedthere in the late sixties. I actually returned to the campus of the TeacherTraining Institute where I had taught classes in health/nutrition, ofteninvolving travel to neighboring villages to oversee the construction ofthe school kitchens. I arrived in India on July 5, 2008, and returned tothe U.S. on August 1. Forty years later, I did not meet a single personwho had heard of the Peace Corps or could remember any activity ordiscussion about their presence in this part of India in the late sixties(4,325 of us served there from 1961-1976).Perhaps it was just a question of numeric odds. India has more thandoubled in population since 1968, and although the national average ageis closer to my own, 64.8, nearly a third of the population is under theage of 15. Surprisingly, there was still a general fondness for the U.S.across different age groups, not so much for any generosity or peacefulbilateral exchanges over the years, but more in terms of support for ourcurrent military incursion into Iraq. The young Americans and Indianswho were now Deshpande Fellows/Innovators (approximately 25 Indian,15 American/British) were assigned to work in projects very reminiscentof past Peace Corps efforts in the Hubli-Dharwad area: agriculture,health, education, environment, etc. Whereas Peace Corps Volunteerswere assigned to work with Indian government officials, these Fellowswere typically assigned to specific projects developed and managed bysmaller non-governmental organizations. These projects were also moreclosely aligned with each Fellow's specific educational training and